Meaning & use
rose
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Meanings
nouncountable
A flower with soft layered petals and a sweet scent, growing on a thorny bush.
Grammar: Plural is roses: a bunch of roses.
Patterns
- a rose bush
He gave her a single red rose.
The garden was full of climbing roses.
Roses need regular pruning to flower well.
noununcountable
A soft pink color.
Grammar: Often used before another noun or as an adjective: rose pink, rose petals.
The sunset turned the clouds a delicate rose.
She painted the nursery in soft rose.
The walls were a faded rose.
verbintransitive
Past tense of rise: went up or got up.
Grammar: Has no object: the sun rose; prices rose.
Patterns
- rose to something
- rose from something
The sun rose over the hills at six.
Prices rose sharply last month.
Everyone rose from their seats to applaud.
noununcountable
A pink or pale wine made with only brief contact with grape skins; also written rosé.
Grammar: Usually written rosé; the plural is rosés.
We drank a glass of chilled rosé on the terrace.
The restaurant offers a dry rosé from Provence.
She prefers rosé to red in the summer.
Word forms
| plural | roses |
|---|
Common combinations
- red rose
- A red rose is a symbol of love.
- rose petals
- Rose petals covered the path.
- rose garden
- We walked through the rose garden at noon.
- prices rose
- Prices rose for the third month in a row.
- rose to power
- She rose to power quickly after the election.
- rose-colored glasses
- He sees the past through rose-colored glasses.
Synonyms and how they differ
- bloom
- Bloom is a general word for any flower, whereas rose names a specific one.
- pink
- Pink is the plain word for the color, and rose suggests a deeper, slightly romantic pink.
- climbed
- Climbed can replace rose in the sense of going upward, but it suggests effort on a surface.
- increased
- Increased fits numbers or levels, while rose can also describe a person standing or the sun appearing.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: rose or rows? rose or raise?
rose vs rows
Rows is a plural noun meaning lines or the verb for pushing a boat with oars, and it sounds like roes in some speech but not like rose.
rose vs raise
Raise needs an object, as in raise a flag, while rose has none: the flag rose.
Practice
Yesterday the temperature ___ above thirty degrees for the first time this year.
Choose one answer.
Rose is the past tense of rise and takes no object. Raised needs an object, and risen needs a helper verb like had.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “rose”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.